Inspiration and photo lessons from professional photographers and the Tamron technical team.

Wildlife

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the most incredible drives in the contiguous 48 states. The road rises to 12,134 feet elevation and over 11 miles of the highway is above treeline. Whether your camera is pointed toward the twin peaks of Long’s Peak and Mount Meeker, the alpine flowers or the pikas, bighorn sheep and elk, the photographic possibilities are endless and inspiring.

After we finished shooting wildflowers above Hidden Valley, we continued our drive toward the summit. The parking lot at Rainbow Curve and its incredible vistas was teeming with cars and people so we decided to drive up a little further.

Our patience paid off when we pulled into a spot at Lava Cliffs, which is just below the highest point on the road. In the valley to our east were elk. The gentlemen were enjoying a snack and napping near the ponds while the ladies were to their north in the meadow munching on a midday treat. Now the elk weren't that close to the roadside pullout but I was confident that I could get some great shots with the Tamron 150-600mm I brought along.

Relaxing With The Boys

Tamron 150-600 VC at 600mm (Hand held!) ISO: 800, Shutter speed: 1/500 sec, Aperture: f8 For this image, the wind had come up and the bull elk were further away than the cows so I had to increase my shutter speed to compensate for the windy conditions

Little did we know when we pulled out our cameras and Tamron lenses, we were going to attract almost as much attention from the tourists as the elk did.

When we arrived at Lava Cliffs, the overlook was full of tourists with i-Devices, point-n- shoots, binoculars, and a few DSLRs with "kit lenses." We set up our tripods along the edge of the overlook. I was using the new Tamron 150-600 VC on my camera while Deanna had the 200-500 on hers. With lens shades on, and pointed toward the elk, they were a sight compared to those around us.

And our lenses allowed us to get a little closer to the wildlife. These images show how the right lens can still let you get the action even when you are over a half mile away from it. The bull elk in the second image were approximately a half mile from our vantage point while the cows and calves were in a field a little closer - only about a quarter mile or maybe a bit less. In all three of these, you can see how amazingly sharp this lens is when it's wide open at 600mm

And as often happens, it wasn't long before we were answering questions about the lenses, photography and sharing the views from our cameras with visitors from Kansas to Iowa to England. I think Deanna spent more time allowing people to look through her camera viewfinder than she did shooting.

As I told those I spoke with on Sunday, I love the versatility - and affordability - of this lens. And I can be confident whether on a tripod or even handheld as these are, that my images are going to be great with Tamron's VC stabilization even in the always breezy conditions at 12,000 feet above sea level.

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

One of the first steps to creating an interesting image for your audience is to work on pleasing compositions. The Rule of Thirds is one way to achieve this. The “rule” states that photos should be divided into thirds with two imaginary lines both horizontally and vertically placed over your scene making three columns and three rows on the image. Place the important subjects either on the lines or where the lines intersect, keeping them away from the direct center of the frame. When shooting a landscape, use this rule by placing the horizon either on the top or bottom line and not directly in the middle of the frame. Most of today’s DSLRs let you turn on the “rule of thirds” grid on your viewfinder (see your camera’s instruction manual). In this image, I placed the horses in the lower right third of the frame and positioned the fence across the lower third.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Sixty miles from home, three miles upriver, waist deep in water and only one lens to do all the shooting. I can’t say it enough; there is only one lens that I have the confidence in to get the job done. The Tamron 18-270mm, time after time, it gets the shot.

I photograph for several outdoor publications. Sometimes I have the luxury of carrying several lenses to a shoot but there are a lot of times that it’s just not practical, this is when the compact, all-in-one 18-270mm comes in handy.

Freelance outdoor photography is very competitive, especially fishing photos. There are literally millions of grip-n-grip shots for editors to choose from. In order to stand out from the crowd, you need get creative. When shooting a fishing event, I stay close to the action, whether it means around the water, on the water or even in the water. Another good technique for fishing photos is to keep low. I always kneel down when possible, even in the water.

I recently photographed a smallmouth bass fishing trip. Fishing for river smallmouth is a favorite late spring pastime in the Midwest. Smallmouth fishing, especially in a river, is demanding; hiking for miles, wading swift currents, negotiating slippery rocks and yes, even falling in the water if you’re not careful.

These conditions are not favorable to camera equipment. I have in the past carried loads of gear upstream just to get a great shot. A backpack full of heavy lenses makes for a long day. Not to mention, everything needs to be in a waterproof bag. This makes it just about impossible to get an action shot.

Smallmouth love to jump, especially when they are first hooked; by the time you get the proper lens out of the bag, attached to the camera and start shooting, the action is over. That is when the Tamron 18-270mm shines.

I use a Sony Alpha DSLR, a full size camera. With the 18-270mm attached, the camera and lens fits in a waterproof bag and tucks neatly in a small shoulder camera bag. In seconds, I have the camera ready and shooting.

The lens is great for all around shooting. That’s what it was designed for. Yeah, the 18-270mm is not a specialty lens but, with a little practice, the lens is capable of capturing just about any shot.

Some of the action shots that I captured of jumping smallmouth would have been challenging if it weren’t for a few quick adjustments on the camera. A bright sunny day and this fish just happened to put on its aerial display in the shadows. With only seconds to react, a widest possible aperture (f5.6 at the zoom range) and a quick dial to 800 ISO was the only way to stop the action.

The action ended with the fish being landed. Next came the hero shots, always wear a colorful shirt for fishing photos. My wife had on a bright orange shirt just for the occasion. Again, the 18-270mm is the perfect lens for capturing great color. All that was needed to fill the shadows on the sunny day was the pop up flash on the camera.

Last was a low angle photo of the fish being released, this was the perfect shot to (illustrate a story) with a handful of pictures.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Some orchids can be very complex flowers with curving lines overlapping one another and colors galore. Having so much to work with, in such a small flower, sometimes it can be difficult to find a point of focus. So I am going to keep this blog nice and short with a simple technique I use to keep myself from getting frustrated.

Keep it simple

We all go through periods where we look at something we want to photograph but just don't know where to start. When I have a tough time finding an interesting image with the more complex orchids, I turn to the very simple ones. A perfect example is the image above, what caught my eye was the perfect curve of the fuzzy stem leading to the slightly opened bud which revealed just a little bit of pink color. That's it, nothing more, so I framed the flower nice and tight accentuating the curve and size of the bud.

I captured this image using Tamron's SP 180mm 1:1 Macro lens with the following settings: ISO 400, F/32 at a 1/2 sec. shutter speed. This was shot in one of Parkside Orchids (Ottsville, PA) greenhouses, so the sunlight was nicely diffused by its translucent roof. I placed a yellow piece of craft paper about 24" behind the flower to add some color and a white panel reflector to bring in a touch more light.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A little while back I was capturing some images for a macro photography seminar and I was thinking of some different ways to light my subjects, which in this case was a variety of flowers. At first I headed outside with a diffusion panel and some reflectors to work with the natural sunlight. Then I headed back inside to work with some nice soft window light, using sheer curtains as a diffuser. After capturing some nice traditionally lit images I decided to change things up a bit and started to capture some images by painting with light, using an old maglite flashlight in a completely dark studio. The image above was captured by painting with light, but with a small twist.

Photography is defined as "Drawing with Light" and in this image that is a literal definition, I used a maglite flashlight as my sole light source and "drew" the light where I wanted it. First, with the lights on I set up my subject (the flower) on a black background sweep, I set up my camera on a tripod and framed then focused the camera on the flower. I then set my camera using the Tamron 180mm 1:1 Macro lens to F/22 with a shutter speed of 30 seconds and an ISO of 200. Next I turned off all the lights, with flashlight in hand so I could see what I was doing. I fired the cameras shutter using a release cable (to prevent camera shake). Once the shutter was released I started to paint/draw the flower with light, continuously moving the light across the flower. Making sure not to stop in one spot for too long which would cause a hot spot in the final image. My first few shots were taken by painting the light only on the front of the flower, which looked nice, but wasn't what I was looking for. The small twist with this image was that for most of the 30 second exposure I was backlighting the flower to make it glow and only about 5 seconds of painting of light on the front red center of the flower to make sure I get some detail there as well. This is a fun way to capture some really unique looking images of flowers, just remember there will be some trial and error to getting the correct setting on your camera and how and where you want the light on your subject.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

This year the Christmas tree came from the backyard and on the evening that we put it up I noticed a gigantic spider or rather a gigantic shadow from a tiny spider as it walked over the tree lights. But with so many lights trying to find the actual spider became an exercise in futility. And I went to bed knowing that at least the spider was tiny. The next morning I heard some rustling towards the top of the tree and my mind immediately drifted to those urban myths of cactuses exploding with thousands of spiders. So I was somewhat surprised to see a butterfly, who apparently found it warm enough to emerge and thus our Christmas butterfly was born or maybe more accurately had arisen.

My internet detective work led me to believe that the butterfly is an Eastern Comma, on account of the comma like slit in the wings and the coloration. He or she, as I am not in the business of distinguishing the gender of butterflies, was quite cooperative as a subject landing on the finger of my fiance and exposing the innards of it's wings. The butterfly has taken a liking to the bedroom window in the afternoons and the outside of the window curtain in the evenings. She has been with us for four weeks now and seems quite content, especially when some birds unsuccessfully attempted to eat her through the window. But I digress, on the first day of our acquaintance, I was compelled to photograph my new friend. And of the 120 or so images I shot, came a collage, a portrait and an abstract of the butterfly in the tree.

All images were taken with the Tamron SP 60mm F/2.0 macro lens. The collage images were taken at 1/100-125th of a second at 1600 ISO f3.3. The images themselves are not manipulated other then erasing the edges to soften them and laying them out together. Because of the depth of field and the movement of the butterfly with respect to the shutter speed, some blur occurred, resulting in an image that resembles painting. The portrait was 1/125 ISO 800 f3.3 and is two images combined together to increase the depth of field and create more planes of sharpness. Butters in the tree was 1/80th ISO 8000 f4.0. I focused the lens to its closest focus point to get the tree lights to blur into nice round circles and then moved around to get the butterfly silhouette in the foreground.

Sometimes the unexpected guest can become the center of attention, especially when it is a butterfly in your living room in mid December in the northeast of America.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

It's no secret that the first hint of winter has been signaling its onset. So, last week, we did what most cold sensitive folks do; we headed south, to work in warm weather one last time.

We had three major objectives: 1) Do a presentation for the Greater New Orleans Camera Club. 2) Spend a day shooting images and loaning out lenses to practice what we discussed at GNOCC and just to have fun. 3) To visit dealers around town who were starting the holiday sales season.

Thursday night, Jeff Allen and I presented a two hour seminar about making the final image you capture match the image in your head when you are in the excitement of the moment at the scene. (Sort of a 'Beyond the 11 Simple Secrets'.) Friday we visited stores and scouted the fabulous location where we would meet Saturday (The New Orleans Audubon Nature Institute).

Here is a shot of us just before we opened up Saturday morning. We had planned a group photo, but right from the start, we were so busy and the participants so anxious to get started, we couldn't get it done.

Saturday, we had about 70 photographers show up and they borrowed over 200 individual lenses to try (an average of 3 each). The situation was ideal. The Audubon is visually spectacular and the weather was perfect.

The old live oaks, dripping with moss, created a beautiful 'deep south' backdrop to the event. The animals were active and entertaining. The photographers probably entertained them, too. The exhibits were easily accessible ad permitted great access to good vantage points.

by Jean Francis

by Linda Vinsanau

by Tom Longmire

by Tom Oelsner

by William Pino

We are presenting just a few of their images here. They have an entire gallery going up on "www.myphotoexhibits.com" too.

Right after the holidays, we are going to start a series of about 30 free in store classes to help people get the most out of their 2012 picture taking opportunities. Look for one of us at a store near you. We will also be at WPPI, Imaging USA several PSA camera club councils and PSA's National Convention and many other events around the country. Stop by and visit us, if you can. A complete and evolving list of our attendance is located at:"www.tamron-usa.com/events"

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

I always shoot early in the mornings at the nearby parks, but yesterday I went out in the middle of the afternoon. Part of the reason I always shoot in the mornings this time of year is because I can't take the heat. Yesterday was in the 70's and the humidity was low so it felt pretty good. I decided to hit the swampy areas and check out the floating leaves. One thing I miss when shooting very early in the morning is the frogs, usually they are still sleeping when I go out, but in the afternoon they are everywhere. Most are long gone before I get close but there are always a few that will let you get fairly close. This is where your Tamron 180mm lens comes in handy, as the extra working distance gives you some extra room between you and your subject, so not to scare off the frogs.

This one jumped up on a mossy stump which made a nice background, and was good enough to sit still while I set up my tripod and took my time shooting.

This frog was really friendly as he sat still and watched me shoot his portrait, and then watched me work my tripod within a couple of feet from him while I was shooting moss on a stump. When I processed the image I darkened down the areas around the frog, and I call this image, Moonlight In The Swamp.

Most frogs are not as friendly as these two, but if you run across enough frogs you'll usually find a couple that wanna be a star in your portfolio.

Friday, August 26, 2011

For most people new to photography it is only natural for them to pick up their camera and hold it in the horizontal perspective, for one it's the most stable and comfortable way to hold the camera. So, in turn, all their images are horizontal even though some may have looked better vertically. The question from most new photographers usually is, "how do I know when something may look better in a horizontal or vertical orientation"? I answer them first by saying, "when you have the time, photograph your subjects both ways, this way when you go back to review your images you can choose what looks best to you”. This may seem like a simple solution, and it is, but the first step is to train your photographic eye to see your subjects both vertically and horizontally, and the only way to do this is to actually take the images and review them. Of course there are a few subjects that generally work out better vertically, and you can start with these in mind if you don’t want to shoot everything both ways. Vertical lines, trees, flag poles, tall buildings all work well vertically, of course it is not a “rule” that all vertical lines must be shot vertically, just a starting point to get you to turn your camera vertically. Portraits are a second type of image that may look better in a vertical orientation. For me it depends on how many people I’m working with. 1, 2 or 3 people I will shoot vertically more often than a larger group which I will shoot horizontally.

Below are three vertical images all shot with the Tamron AF18-270mm VC PZD lens. The first is a group of very tall sailboat masts shot vertical to show off their height, I cropped out the boat because it was docked in an area that was crowded and it got lost amongst everything around it. The second once again, I used the vertical line of the flag pole and the vertical lines of the water being shot out of the boats engines to create a strong vertical image. Lastly, my interpretation of a portrait, which of course, doesn’t always have to be human. I went on an Eco Tour where the guide held up (with the help of one of us) a lobster to show us how to recognize if it’s a male or female (still don’t know) lobster. I will be honest, I shot this both vertically and horizontal, I ended up liking the vertical better because of the way the arm coming in from the bottom left leads you up to the (vertical) lobster, which then leads you to the arm on the right. The key is to experiment and shoot your images many different ways, the more ways you shoot them the better your eye becomes.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

According to the calendar on my phone, laptop, iPad and even the one hanging on the door that leads to my cellar, it's spring. I think mother nature is on vacation somewhere and forgot to turn on the warm weather, and put the snowy cold conditions in the attic till next winter. With that said, this past weekend Tamron hosted a workshop at Lakota Wolf Preserve and once again we had our eye on the weather channel watching an impending snow storm. Lucky for us it dumped about 10 inches of snow on the Columbia, NJ area early enough in the week so we were able to hold our workshop with out any problems. I'll be honest, I wasn't as worried about the snowy conditions as much as being excited to photograph the wolves in a beautiful winter scene. I have been to Lakota many times and never experienced it in the snow. Snow can really play tricks on your exposure, especially if you have a very bright & sunny day. Because snow is so reflective it will sometimes fool the metering system of your camera and you end up with dark & muddy under exposed images. So to brighten up your images you will have to tell the camera to add more light, this is done by using the exposure compensation feature on your camera. Luckily for us there was a nice balance of shadow and sunlight and the matrix metering on my camera handled the conditions just fine. All three images were taken with Tamron's SP AF70-300mm VC USD lens, which is an ideal focal length for Lakota.